The Turn of a Friendly Card

The six-track album focuses on gambling and, in free form, tells of a man intoxicated by the excitement of a game and putting everything he has on the line to ultimately be left with nothing. The content of the album is emphasized by its recognizable cover with the image of a tambourine king's card stylized as a church stained glass window, which also suggests thoughts of raising gambling to the rank of religion. In addition, this stylization has something in common with the echoes of the musical stylistics of the Middle Ages found in the compositions of the album.

Like all the albums of The Alan Parsons Project , The Turn of a Friendly Card has excellent compilation and thematic endurance.

The song “Time” was the first song of The Alan Parsons Project , in which Eric Wolfson appeared as a leading vocalist. The last song, actually “The Turn of a Friendly Card”, which gave the album its name, is a kind of suite of five tracks. In some editions of the album, these compositions are listed separately.

The Turn of a Friendly Card is considered one of the best albums by The Alan Parsons Project . First of all, the album is known for the songs “Games People Play” and “Time”, which later became hits and are included in compilation albums and concert programs without fail. In 1980, the album climbed to 13th on the Billboard 200 and 38th on the UK Albums Chart .

The songs "Games People Play" (the name is translated as "Human Games"), as well as "Time" were present on the compilation album "The Best of Alan Parsons Project" published in the USSR in 1986, where the album name was translated as "If you're lucky in the cards. " Under this name, the album became known in the USSR, although it was never fully published.

All compositions are written by Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson .

1. May Be a Price to Pay (4:58)
2. Games People Play (4:22)
3. Time (5:04)
4. “I Don't Wanna Go Home” (5:03)
5. The Gold Bug (instrumental) (4:34)
6. The Turn of a Friendly Card (Suite in Five Parts) (16:24)
   1. “The Turn of a Friendly Card (Part One)” (2:44)
   2. Snake Eyes (3:14)
   3. The Ace of Swords (instrumental) (2:57)
   4. Nothing Left to Lose (4:07)
   5. “The Turn of a Friendly Card (Part Two)” (3:22)

In early 2008, Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson reissued the album in the Expanded edition. In addition to a detailed digital restoration of the original compositions, the album also includes seven additional tracks, namely:

1. “May Be a Price to Pay” (intro / demo) - early electronic variations on the theme of the album’s first composition.
2. “Nothing Left to Lose” (basic backing track) - instrumental “backing track” with a predominance of keyboards and without an accordion insert in the center.
3. "Nothing Left to Lose" (Chris Rainbow overdub compilation) - Chris Rainbow's insulated backing vocals.
4. “Nothing Left to Lose” (early studio version with Eric's guide vocal) is an early studio version, already with Wolfson's vocals, but still without an accordion.
5. “Time” (early studio attempt) - early sketches of things on synthesizers.
6. Games People Play (rough mix) is an early studio recording.
7. “The Gold Bug” (demo) - variations on the theme of composition using the old German piano with damped strings (!). This natural sound, usually taken as a synthesizer, is also present in the final version of The Gold Bug.

Interestingly, in this edition of the album, the suite “The Turn of a Friendly Card” is recorded separately. The album booklet lost the lyrics, but was supplemented by voluminous information about the album from Parsons and Wolfson and a number of photos.